Cake discrimination case heats up

A case headed for a Dec. 5 hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court is drawing briefs in support of the gay couple denied a wedding cake by a Lakewood baker in 2012. The Interfaith Alliance of Colorado submitted a brief in support of Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, for whom Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakeshop refused to provide a specially made wedding cake; he cited his religious beliefs opposing same-sex marriage. Phillips has thus far lost at every stage of his legal battle.

In addition, the American Civil Liberties Union also filed a brief supporting the couple. And, according to One Colorado, an advocacy group for LGBTQ rights, community organizations across the state, along with current and former Colorado legislators, also signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief.

Colorado University law professor Craig Konnoth, who drafted that brief, said in a release that allowing people to claim religion as a reason to discriminate "will open a can of worms that hurt[s] all of society."